The fraudulent lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador began over 20 years ago. A group of lawyers and activists concocted a plan to extort billions from Chevron. In 2011, an Ecuadorian court issued a judgement against Chevron for $19 billion, but evidence of rampant fraud and misconduct were revealed. In 2014, a U.S. Court found that the lawyers behind the case violated federal racketeering laws, committing mail and wire fraud, money laundering, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.

Steven Donziger and his few remaining followers are touting a “leaked” report related to the computers used by former Ecuadorian judge Nicolas Zambrano when he presided over the trial against Chevron in Ecuador. They claim the report, which was commissioned by the Republic of Ecuador, is some sort of smoking gun that proves Judge Zambrano was the true author of the judgment against Chevron. As usual, their claims are flat out wrong.
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A group of lawyers and activists concocted a fraudulent scheme in an attempt to extort billions from Chevron.

Chevron is defending itself against false allegations that it is responsible for alleged environmental and social harms in the Amazon region of Ecuador. In February 2011, an $18 billion judgment—later reduced to $9.5 billion—was rendered against Chevron by a court in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, for alleged contamination resulting from crude oil production in the region.

But that judgment has now been proven to be a complete fraud.

In March 2014, a U.S. federal court ruled that the Ecuadorian judgment was the product of fraud and racketeering activity, finding it unenforceable.

The nearly 500-page ruling finds that Steven Donziger, the lead American lawyer behind the Ecuadorian lawsuit against the company, violated the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), committing extortion, money laundering, wire fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, witness tampering and obstruction of justice in obtaining the Ecuadorian judgment and in trying to cover up his and his associates’ crimes.

“The wrongful actions of [Steven] Donziger and his Ecuadorian legal team would be offensive to the laws of any nation that aspires to the rule of law, including Ecuador – and they knew it.”

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 3/4/14

Bribing and threatening judges and court officials

Steven Donziger and the plaintiffs’ lawyers opened a secret account to give $100,000 in bribes and hush money to the supposedly independent court expert, promised a $500,000 bribe to a judge to rule in their favor, and plotted to intimidate judges into handing down favorable rulings.

Fabricating environmental evidence

The plaintiffs’ lawyers misled their environmental experts, misused these experts’ work and forged signatures. They forced the court, by threatening the judge with a sexual harassment complaint, to appoint an “independent” global damages expert, who would work covertly for them.

Ghostwriting the judgment and colluding with the Ecuadorian government

The plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote the judgment against Chevron themselves, and colluded with the Government of Ecuador to advance the case.

Fraud by the Numbers

Learn more about the fraudulent lawsuit against Chevron.

Chevron does not believe that the Ecuador ruling, which has now been proven to be fraudulent by a U.S. court, is enforceable in any court that observes the rule of law. The company will continue to seek to hold accountable the perpetrators of this fraud. Read the latest updates about proceedings around the world.

In the more than 500 hours of outtakes from the movie Crude produced, the plaintiffs’ lawyers and representatives were caught, amongst other things, planning to organize an “army” to pressure, intimidate, and humiliate Judges in Ecuador. Plaintiffs’ representatives even go as far as to discuss the possibility of a judge being killed if he ruled in favor of Texaco.

Chevron brought a civil lawsuit against the lawyers behind the Ecuador case under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) to hold them accountable for committing fraud, extortion and other misconduct. In March 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that the $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron in Ecuador was the product of fraud and racketeering activity, finding it unenforceable.

An opposition supporter who recently emerged after a year in hiding as a fugitive from justice told a private media station Friday that he intended to go to Washington in order to have the U.S. government apply unilateral sanctions against Ecuador as they have done with Venezuela. Read more>>

Six years ago, Ecuador President Rafael Correa’s government denounced the 10 percent in annual interest the country paid on its bonds as “usury.” So when the 51-year-old former economics professor was willing to pay 10.5 percent in a sale of notes this month, it raised speculation the OPEC nation may be running short of cash after oil prices collapsed. Read more>>

The Ecuadorian government has decided to confront the social organizations opposed to its political project by taking the organizations’ leaders to court to imprison them or restrain them with indefinite trials in order to silence them. Likewise, the government seeks to close down the organizations through a decree that threatens their stability and limits their activities. Read more>>

According to Freedom House, Ecuador was listed as “not free” in its 2014 Freedom of the Press rankings. President Rafael Correa’s administration has created a hostile environment for the press, using multimillion-dollar libel lawsuits and draconian communications laws to repress the media. Speaking to Bonilla, though, who has a sociable, easygoing manner and laughs off Correa’s tactics with ease, one would never guess that he himself is one of the government’s targets for his cartoons. Read more>>